Don't Ever, Ever Ring the Bell

Every family has it's triumphs and tragedies. Mine, in my opinion, has had more than its fair share of the latter. But there is also plenty to be thankful for, and that is where the choice lies: the age old question about the glass and the level of its contents.

With graduation season in full swing there are a lot of posts featuring inspirational speeches by one dignitary or another. I watched a YouTube video of Naval Admiral William H. McRaven giving the commencement speech at the University of Texas. He offers the graduates a list of life lessons he learned while in Basic Seal Training. While all of it is fantastic advice it's the last bit of advice that stuck with me. 

You see, in the last several years me and my siblings have lost a father and another set of "second parents", all to fairly horrible medical issues and all of them a long road to the end. Then, over the last year I have probably spent a total of two months helping my mother go through the process of getting a lung transplant. (More on this later as it may take up multiple blog posts) That's just my immediate family, and just the last several years. If I include my extended family, the list is both spectacular and daunting:

• Severe asthma
• Breast cancer
• Bipolar Disorder
• Heart valve replacement
• Drug addiction
• Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Downs Syndrome
• Diabetes
• Heart Disease
• Eczema
• Seliac Disease
• Severe Stroke
• and a disease I can't pronounce that has caused a child to lose an eye

At the end of Admiral McRaven's speech he references "the bell".  A brass bell that stands in the center of the compound at navy seal training camp.  You may remember this bell from the movie G. I. Jane.  The bell is placed there as a way out, a way to end all the suffering and get you out of there.  In short, it's there for those that want to quit. His advice to graduates is "If you want to change the world, don't ever ever ring the bell."

Now, my family is not out to change the world or anything, but we have certainly been blessed with a stand up and fight attitude when it comes to dealing with the crap that gets thrown our way. I can proudly say that I can't think of a single person in my family that has "wrung the bell". It's not who we are. Not because we haven't thought about it, but because we have made the choice to keep going, to fight the battle until the bitter end, to walk past the proverbial bell and not even recognize its presence.

I'm proud of us, the ones who've been diagnosed, and the ones who have cared for them.  It's not something everyone does well.

All that said, we could seriously use a break . . .